A Weekend Austrailian article says the US Army has just deployed the first 30 Marcbots in Iraq. A Marcbot is basically a radio-controlled robot based on off-the-shelf, hobby RC vehicle parts. You may recall the Bubba DIY ordinance disposal robot we posted about in Nov 2004. For $1000, a company created an ordinance disposal robot out of a Traxxas E-Maxx RC truck. Apparently seeing the profit potential, Exponent Inc., has done the same thing but added an extendable arm and marked them up to $8,000 for the military. For more, there's a Jan 2005 Defenselink article on the testing of the Marcbot at Fort Hood. There are also two sites, EID Robot and WarfighterSolutions.com have photos and detailed field usage information aimed at the soldiers who end up with Marcbots.